A known method for compounding a pharmaceutical formulation involves mixing the formulation in a compounding vessel such as an EMP jar, as a non-limiting example. A suitable EMP jar is commercially available and manufactured by GAKO® International GmbH in Munich, Germany. The EMP jar is cylindrical and has a movable piston bottom that requires a manual, physical force applied coaxially to dispense contents through a nozzle at a top of the EMP jar.
Due to the dimensions of the EMP jars, it can be difficult to push the movable piston bottom to dispense material completely or in a controlled manner. It is also known that these issues are exacerbated in EMP jars of volumes of 200 mL and larger, due to the greater surface area of the piston.
Several methods to actuating the moveable piston bottom of a compounding vessel are known, and can be selected depending on the volume size of the EMP jar. For 200 mL EMP jars, an applicator tip is typically provided, and doubles as a manual push rod and an applicator. However, this is problematic as the applicator tip can only be used as either the manual push rod or the applicator during a dispensing operation of the EMP jar.
For EMP jars having volumes of 300 mL to 1000 mL, an attachable spindle or a pneumatic pump can be attached to the bottom of the EMP jar. The spindle has some disadvantages in that it can perforate the piston bottom, introducing plastic particulates into the formulation contained by the EMP jar. The spindle is also not intuitive, in terms of utilization, and is prone to malfunction due to misalignment of threads.
The pneumatic pump requires introducing air below the piston bottom via a pump ball that is used by hand. This method can be inefficient in dispensing large dosages and does not allow for reliable control. In addition, the pneumatic pump can be difficult to use in any orientation other than when the pneumatic pump is vertically upright. This may be impractical, as dispensing the formulation often requires that the EMP jar be tilted at an angle relative to the vertical.
Another dispensing mechanism available for the EMP jars is the Topi-Click® Filling Station, manufactured by Custom RX TDA, LLC in Woodstock, Ga., USA. This mechanism provides better control of dispensing the formulation through manual force via a plunger that pushes downward on the movable piston bottom while holding the EMP jar upside-down. However, the Topi-Click® Filling Station is not portable, i.e., it is a large, bench top unit that is not hand-held and does not dispense metered amounts. Furthermore, larger EMP jar sizes need to have a custom hole cut in the piston bottom to accommodate the plunger diameter of the Topi-Click® Filling Station. Considering that the Topi-Click® Filling Station is run manually, without any automated assistance, it may not be a cost-efficient solution for many compounding pharmacists.
There is a continuing need for a cost-efficient system that permits an easy and ergonomically efficient dispensing of pharmaceutical compounds from varying sizes and types of compounding vessels. Desirably, the system also allows the pharmaceutical compounds to be dispensed in a controlled, metered, and decontaminated manner.